After your financial assessment is carried out, alongside your care needs assessment, your local authority will decide whether or not you are entitled to a personal health budget. If you opt to receive direct payments to pay for your care, you'll need to carefully manage payments made to you to ensure that the money you receive is only spent on care and support services that specifically meet the needs agreed in your care plan or that of your loved one. 

For this purpose, you will be required to open a managed bank account (MBA), which is a current account that can be opened in a high street bank. This is the account into which your local authority pays your direct payments.